Literature

Old Thai Library at Muang Boran

Don't pay a fortune: ECO Guesthouse near Naiyang Beach, Phuket

A) Literature

Travel guides and recommendations, news paper articles, even novels, are available in English or German language in a great amount. Most of them are written by non-Asian writers and refer to cultural and historical, economical and ecological, leisure or sportive themes, but scarcely to the thought and the feeling of a Thai. Only a native Thai is able to transmit these complexes. Pira Sudham is like a double good luck - not only for Thailand and its people, but also for all persons who are interested in Thailand and its people. He writes in English.

His first book, Siamese Drama, a collection of short stories, appeared in 1983, followed by People of Esarn 1987. In 1988, his first novel, Monsoon Country was published, Tales of Thailand 1990, The Force of Karma (Destiny) in 2002.

People of Esarn
"Pira Sudham brings into the light lives of some of the ordinary people who live in obscurity in remote villages. With the skill and craftsmanship of a sensitive writer, he conveys the inner voices of his subjects regardless of how illiterate, timid and insignificant they seem in their daily lives. Their simplicity and sensitivity come through his direct and clear prose, yet moving and touching. He writes with understanding and compassion for his people. Foreign writers writing about the Thai people look at Thailand from the 'outside', but Pira Sudham writes about his people and country as seen from the 'inside'. This is one of the things that makes them so fascinating."
From the blurb of Tales of Thailand, 1996.

Monsoon Country
"Pira Sudham' s novel, Monsoon Country, is set in Thailand, England and Germany to convey the cultural tension between the East and the West, the clashes between the new powers and the old values, covering the span of 25 years of the socio-economic and political changes occurring in Thailand."

Tales of Thailand
"Out of the relocation of millions of people in the path of dam constructions and eucalyptus plantations, the suppression of wages and the price of agricultural produce, the forceful drive to gain more land to grow eucalyptus trees, the corruption, prostitution, child trade, slave labour, the horror of the Thailand-Burma Death Railway during the World War II, the economic crisis in July 1997, the war to win the people in impoverished Esarn in the seventies and the daily grind in the Mother of Gridlock - Bangkok come tales of hope and tales of woe, tales of acceptance and tales of the struggle for survival that become Tales of Thailand, a book by Pira Sudham."
From http://www.pirasudham.com.

The Force of Karma (Destiny)
"This sequel to Monsoon Country covers the tumultuous years of the economic crisis, the political upheavals and the massacre of May 1992, right up to the beginning of the year 2002."
From http://www.pirasudham.com.

Thanapol Chadchaidee:
Essays on Thailand
"The most informative stories ever written by the Thai authors in both Thai and English. ... Moreover, the book can be used not only for further reference but also for enhancing general knowledge about Thailand, especially for foreign visitors who want to become acquainted with local situations and the Thai way of life." (The blurb).

Bibliography:
Thanapol Chadchaidee: Essays on Thailand,
ISBN 974-834-824-5

Phra Peter Pannapadipo:
Phra Farang & Little Angels
Two other books found in a Phuket bookshop I consider worth to be presented to all visitors of Thailand interested in the country's Buddhist religion and in actual social problems. They feature more than only a first glance into the world behind the sunny beaches and beyond the resorts' artificial world.

Phra Farang
"At forty-five, successful businessman Peter Robinson gave up his comfortable life in London to ordain as a Buddhist monk in Bangkok. But the new path he had chosen was not always as easy or as straightforward as he hoped it would be.
In this truly extraordinary memoir, Phra Peter Pannapadipo describes his ten-year metamorphosis into a practicing Buddhist monk, while being initiated into the intricacies of an unfamiliar Southeast-Asian culture.
Phra Peter tells his story with compassion, humour and unflinching honesty. It's the story of a 'Phra Farang' - a foreign monk - living and practicing his faith in an exotic and intriguing land." (The blurb).

Little Angles
"The real-life stories of the novice monks in Little Angels reflect the lives of many youths in rural Thailand who are trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty, broken homes, illiteracy and drug abuse. When all else fails, Buddhism becomes their last resort: providing them with physical shelter and spiritual refuge. It heals their childhood traumas and gives them a moral framework for living and a better outlook on life. Each individual story, heartrending as it may be, subtly shows what Phra Peter sees and hopes to show to others: the 'human face' of Thai Buddhism." (The blurb).

Bibliography:
Phra Peter Pannapadipo:
Phra Farang. ISBN 0-09-948447-1
Little Angels. ISBN 0-09-948448-X.

Klaus Beck

Colin Martin: Welcome to Hell;
Sandra Gregory: Forget you had a Daughter
Two more books found in a Phuket bookshop I consider worth to be presented to all visitors of Thailand. They are an introduction to the problems of farangs with police and jurisdiction in Thailand. It is important to realize I bought these books in Thailand. That means they are not forbidden there and seem to mirror the truth.

Welcome to Hell
"Colin Martin's autobiography chronicles an innocent man's struggle to survive inside one of the world's most dangerous prisons. This book is not for the faint hearted; Welcome to Hell takes you behind the bars of the Bangkok Hilton."

After being swindled out of a fortune, Martin was let down by the hopelessly corrupt Thai police. Forced to rely upon his own resources, he tracked down the man who conned him and, drawn into a fight, accidentally stabbed and killed that man's bodyguard.

Martin was arrested, denied a fair trial, convicted of murder and thrown into prison - where he remained for 8 years.

Honest and often disturbing - but told with a surprising humour - Welcome to Hell is the remarkable story of how Martin was denied justice again and again.

In his extraordinary account he describes the swindle, his arrest and vicious torture by police, the unfair trial, and the 8 years of brutality and squalor he was forced to endure." (The blurb).

Forget You Had a Daughter
"Sandra Gregory was living a life in Bangkok that many only dream of - until illness, unemployment and political unrest turned it into a nightmare. Desperate to get home, she agreed to smuggle an addict's personal supply of heroin. ...

In this remarkable candid memoir, Sandra Gregory tells of the events leading up to her arrest, the horrific conditions in Lard Yao prison, her trial in a language she didn't understand and how it feels to be sentenced to death. Her journey to the UK resumed some four and a half years later when she was transferred to the British prison system, where she had to adapt to a new yet equally harsh regime. Following relentless campaigning by her parents, who refused to forget they had a daughter, she was pardoned by the King of Thailand and released in 2000." (The blurb).

Bibliography:
Colin Martin: Welcome to Hell. ISBN 1-905379-06-4;
Sandra Gregory: Forget you had a Daughter.
ISBN 1-904132-27-8.

Klaus Beck